


Arthur

by Ineffable_Hannigram



Series: The Baby's Business [1]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Baby Arthur Morgan, Good Parent Dutch van der Linde, Good Parent Hosea Matthews, M/M, Young Arthur Morgan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28902477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ineffable_Hannigram/pseuds/Ineffable_Hannigram
Summary: Dutch convinces Hosea to keep the baby boy they found while on a supply run.
Relationships: Arthur Morgan & Dutch van der Linde, Hosea Matthews & Arthur Morgan, Hosea Matthews/Dutch van der Linde
Series: The Baby's Business [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2206506
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	Arthur

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic in the RDR2 fandom and I am looking to turn this into a series.

They were sat on a fallen log out in the snow, The Count and Silver Dollar hitched up to a tree as they grazed on the minimal plant life peeking through the frozen ground.

“Hosea, can we keep him?!” the him in question was the small baby currently in Dutch’s arms, held aloft from under his armpits. His head tilted back so that his wide blue eyes could stare at Hosea in confusion and the man would be lying if he didn’t feel a spark of warmth spread through his chest. Hosea tuts, looking up from the food he was cooking on the campfire before taking the small boy from the other man.

“Don’t hold him like that, dear.” He adjusts his hold so the boy is now sat in his lap, head resting against his belly, “He’s not a sack of potatoes… or a dog Dutch. You can’t just keep him”

“Where else is he going to go? We can look after him, Ms Grimshaw is great with kids!”

_Great as in she knows how to train the feral out of them maybe._ Hosea thinks to himself.

“To an orphanage maybe? We can’t afford to be slowed down by a baby, Dutch”

“We have young Jack though Hosea.” It’s said with a pout, Dutch’s eyes staring through him, pleading. He knows what he’s doing and the effect that face has on Hosea.

“... That’s different and you know it” The older man looks down at the small boy again and, as predicated, the boy was staring straight back. _It was almost unnerving how similar his expression is to Dutch’s._

When he looks up, he’s once more greeted with Dutch’s big, pleading eyes.

He sighs, he knows when a battle is lost.

“Fine! Fine. We can keep the boy!”

In an instant, Dutch’s face light up, excitement shining through his eyes. He grabs the baby from Hosea lap and sits him in his own again.

“You hear that kid? We’re your new family. You’re gonna have lots of horses and I’ll teach you how to hunt and-“

“You’ll teach him how to hunt?” Hosea snickers, turning away from the fire, “The last time I took you hunting you tripped on a pebble and busted your lip”

Dutch glares, dramatically turning back to the baby,

“Fine. Hosea will teach you how to hunt but I’ll teach you all about horses”

Hosea stands up from the fire, two small bowls of cooked vegetables and meat in his hands. He passes Dutch one before taking a seat next to him.

“We’ll introduce you to the family first, son. Don’t worry, I won’t let Daddy Dutch work you to the bone yet.” Hosea leans in to jokingly whispers, laughing when Dutch huffs and then almost giggling when the boy’s tiny hand reaches for his nose.

“I don’t work no one to the bone” Dutch grumbles to himself as he shoves his spoon into his mouth. Hosea smiles before turning back to his own bowl.

They eat in silence for about two minutes but then their new member begins to get bored.

“Hey, stop it kid” Hosea looks over to see Dutch trying to wrestle his spoon out of the babe’s hand, his other arm keeping his bowl up and trying not to spill anything.

Hosea watches as Dutch tries to pull his spoon away from him, laughing at the boy’s determined look as he sticks out his lower lip.

“Hosea! Don’t just watch, help me.” Hosea sighs, placing his own empty bowl onto the floor before standing and walking over to the struggling man. He wraps his hands around the boy’s waist and picks him up.

“Up we go, let’s let grumpy Dutch eat his dinner.” The boy still has Dutch’s spoon in a tight grasp, lifting it to stick it into his mouth. Hosea laughs at Dutch’s almost offended face and gives him his own spoon, running his hand over the back of the man’s neck gently before sitting back down.

“I was thinking we cut this trip short now that we have precious cargo. Go back to Colter?”

“Yeah, there’s not much point in risking everything for a possible extra dollar.” Hosea looks down at the boy, “Besides, we need to get this little man all settled in. Decide where he’ll be staying.”

“What do you mean? He’ll stay with us, of course.” Dutch smiles.

“You are aware that he’ll very likely keep you up?” Hosea asks, unsure.

“Nah, it’ll be fine ‘sea”

“Whatever you say, Big Cat. Now hurry up, we need to get back before it gets too dark and the temperatures drop too low.” Having said that, Hosea moves to start packing their minimal belongings into the saddle bags, the boy balanced on his hip the whole time. He’s virtually done by the time Dutch finishes his food and joins them.

“I’ll get on and you pass me the boy” Dutch says and Hose frowns.

“Dutch, do you really think that’s safe?”

“You worry too much, Old Girl. C’mon give him here.” Dutch reaches out his arms and Hosea reluctantly passes the child over. Dutch makes a show of wrapping him in a blanket and hooking said blanket around his own neck like a sling.

“See, ‘sea? All safe and warm.”

Hosea winces as Dutch removes his hand from the blanket.

“J-just keep an arm around him just in case” He climbs onto the back of Silver Dollar and follows behind the younger man as they make their way to their temporary camp in Colter.

* * *

They’re about five minutes away from camp, when a realisation hit Dutch. _They hadn’t come up for a name._

“We need a name.”

“Hmm?” Hosea sits up from where he was lead against Silver Dollar’s neck, dozing.

“We need a name for the kid. We can’t rightly keep calling him ‘boy’” Their precious cargo is currently asleep against Dutch’s chest, the rhythmic trots of The Count soothing him into a deep sleep about ten minutes into their ride, his face mashed against Dutch’s thick wool coat and an arm stretched out of the blanket to hold onto the man’s neckerchief.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right on that account.” Hosea pulls a face in thought. “What were you thinking?”

“Perciv-”

“No.” Hosea cuts him off.

“What? And why not?” Dutch asks, offended.

“We are not calling him that. He will get picked upon. Pick another, Big Cat.”

“Alright then, Sweet Fox. What do you think about Arthur? Like king Arthur.”

“I like it, suits him. Wouldn’t be king though.”

“Whatcha mean?”

“You’re the king, so he’d have to wait his turn.” Hosea mumbles.

Dutch laughs, “I’m sure that was meant to be a sweet but it just sounded like you wanted to get rid of me, Old Girl.” He moves The Count closer to the other man’s mount, bumping his elbow with Hosea’s.

“Shut up, you know that wasn’t how I meant it, Dutch.” Hosea grumbles, ears turning a bright red as he ducks his head down, gently shoving at Dutch.

“So little Arthur then?”

“Yes, our little prince.” Dutch can’t help the warmth that spreads through his chest when he catches Hosea’s soft gaze.

“Who’s there!?” A voice calls from the trees. Bill.

“It’s us you imbecile.” Dutch calls back. He lowers his voice a second later when he hears a soft snuffling noise. “Aand it looks like our newest member is re-joining the land of the living. ”

They reach the camp and hitch their horses, Dutch unhooking the baby sling from his neck and giving him over to Hosea before he climbs down from The Count. They walk further into camp leaving a confused Lenny behind to offload the horses’ tack.

It’s as soon as they enter their cabin that a shrill voice calls for the leader.

“Dutch! Dutch Van Der Linde, you bastard!” The red head comes storming over to them and the men share a look. Dutch shrugs at Hosea’s confused eyebrow lift.

“Miss O’Shea, what a delight. How ca-” Dutch plasters on a fake smile, hands interlocked as he looks at the woman.

“Where the hell have you been?!” She slaps his arm and Dutch steps back.

“I’m sorry? Who do you th-”

“Ahem.” Someone clears their throat behind him, drawing his raising voice to a halt. He turns around to face Hosea who’s got a tired look on his face. Arthur is in his arms, no longer swaddled in the blanket. He’s looking up at Hosea, trying to grasp his scarf but when the boy turns around and sees Dutch his face lights up and he lets out a happy squeal.

Dutch forgets what he was even saying, walking up to them and giving Arthur his finger to hold.

“Hello, little prince. I wasn’t ignoring you. Promise.” He smiles down at Hosea, the ‘or you’ was whispered and he smiled when the man ducked his head against Arthur’s.

“Don’t ignore me Dutch Van Der Linde!”

“Miss O’Shea, if you could refrain from your incessant yelling it would be greatly appreciated.” Hosea interjects, a bored expression on his face.

“Oh, go fuck yourself, Hosea! I need to talk to Dutch.” _He’s not bothered by the comment, quite the opposite in fact. He wouldn’t have survived this long if he fought every person who told him to go away. That’s not to say Dutch also shared that sentiment._ Hosea felt the taller man tense beside him, he rolls his eyes.

“Who do you think you are, Miss O’Shea?! Go out to Ms Grimshaw and do some damn work for once!” Dutch raised his voice and the sudden loud noise obviously startled their new member as a shrill, frightened shriek split through the air. Hosea sighs and lifts Arthur up so he can tuck his face under his chin, tiny fists clutching his coat. Hosea makes a soft cooing noise, gently bouncing the infant.

“Shh, little one, ain’t nothing going to touch you. The adults are just being obnoxious.” He glares at the two. Molly frowns and looks around Dutch to look at Hosea.

“What is that? Dutch, why is there a baby?!”

“For god’s sake, Molly. Get out, stop yelling and get out. We will talk about whatever this is later.” Dutch opens the door and gestures to it. Molly just huffs and storms out of the cabin, leaving the men to themselves.

Dutch sighs and turns towards Hosea and Arthur, the boy is still whimpering as he throws his head around to find Dutch.

“I’m sorry, little prince. Didn’t mean to scare you none.” Dutch quietly apologises, placing a hand on Arthur’s head, fingers playing with his hair.

“Dutch, what was that about?” Hosea asks leading the way to the small bedspace, passing Arthur over to Dutch once the man sits down on the bed. Dutch unwraps Arthur from the blanket and watches as the boy rolls around on the bed to get onto his stomach.

He sighs,

“Honestly Old Girl, I don’t know. She’s been so attached recently, it’s exhausting.”

“She likes you Dutch. You can’t blame the girl; I’ve heard you’re quite the catch.” Hosea teases.

“Although I do much appreciate her shouting at us as soon as we come in. Scared poor Arthur here something fierce.”

“I’ll talk to her later. Don’t understand why she can’t see I’m taken though… It’s not like we’re subtle.”

Hosea chuckles, leaning down to catch Dutch’s lips in a kiss.

“No, we’re not.”

The younger man watches as Hosea starts to undress, hanging his wet coat and scarf over a chair before he moves to take off his vest and shirt, slim chest on show. He furrows his eyebrows when the man begins clearing out an old chest, filling it with pillows and blankets.

“What are you doing?”

“Arthur here is going to need someplace to sleep that isn’t in bed with us.” Hosea explains. He moves to sit on the bed once he deems the makeshift crib worthy. Dutch’s heart swells when the man picks Arthur up and sits him against his bare chest, the boy looking up and grinning at the man.

“Dutch.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re all going to make this, aren’t we?” He takes a breath, “No more people are going to die?”

Dutch is silent for a moment. _They’re all outlaws, wanted people living on the run. It wouldn’t be right to make that sort of promise._

“I will try to get us out of, Hosea. Out of this and then we’re gone. Out of this world and into a better place. I will try to do better by our son.” Dutch strokes a finger over Hosea’s hand before lifting it to his mouth to place a small kiss against the palm.

“Our son.”

“What?”

“You said ‘our son’” Hosea clarifies with a soft smile and Dutch feels his face burn red.

“Well, he-” He clears his throat, “He kind of is, isn’t he?” Dutch scratches the back of his neck. Hosea smiles again and sits up to cup the back of Dutch’s neck, pulling him into a slow kiss. Hosea keeps one hand on the man’s neck while the other rests on Arthur’s belly, keeping him upright.

He feels Dutch move to lean over him more and then there’s a gurgle and an almost offended noise from between them. They both laugh before looking down. Arthur is still sat between them but he has his hands outstretched towards Dutch’s chest from where he was leant over him.

“Sorry Arthur. Was almost crushing you there.” He chuckles, sitting back and stroking a finger across the boy’s cheek. The chuckle turns into a full-blown laugh when Arthur gives an excited shriek and flaps his arms about.

“He’s a happy one, all right. Sure sight happier then when young Jack was around this age.”

“That boy had a set of lungs and got both his Daddy’s and Mama’s temper” Hosea laughs.

“You hear that, Little prince? You’re already better than the best.” Dutch jokes and laughs when Hosea taps his arm.

“You can’t say that Big Cat. You’ll upset the boy.”

“It’s not like I’m saying it to young Jack. Bedsides ain’t talking about him now, just when he was younger.”

“Of course.” Hosea deadpans.

“You wound me, Old Girl.” Dutch clutches his chest in mock offense and Hosea laughs again, shoving him off the bed,

“Shut up and get that damn coat off. You’re making the bed wet.”

“Fine. Fine.” Dutch does as he’s told, dressing down until he’s just in his union suit and trousers. He flops back down on the bed which makes Arthur bounce and, once again, shriek in excitement. And then Hosea yawns, only to be copied by Arthur.

“I think it’s time for someone to go to sleep.”

“I’m surprised he’s still awake at this point, Jack was almost always asleep.” Hosea agrees. Dutch laughs.

“I was talking about you, Sweet Fox. You haven’t slept in two days.” He turns to Arthur who looks just about ready to pass out, “Although it wouldn’t hurt if you took a nap as well.”

He picks Arthur up from Hosea.

“You need to check his diaper, Dutch.” Hosea informs while he puts on one of Dutch’s shirts and rolls over on the bed.

Dutch frowns and looks down at Arthur’s sleepy face. He places a coat over a set of draws, laying Arthur out over it. He quickly rids the boy of his diaper and wipes him down before looking down at the soiled liner. _They’re going to need to move from Colter soon; it’s too far away from stores and they’re going to need better supplies._

Not having any other option, Dutch grabs an old shirt and makes quick work of tying it around the boy’s waist in a makeshift diaper. He picks up Arthur again, and kisses his head before lowering him into the padded chest. The boy snuffles a bit before settling. Dutch smiles. _He feels like he’s been doing that a lot recently. Between Hosea and now young Arthur, Dutch feels like his heart is full._

With a final glance at the sleeping boy, he turns and climbs into bed behind Hosea, chest pushing up against the mans back as he snakes his arms around his waist. One finding its way under Hosea’s, his, shirt.

“Shit, Dutch!” Hosea hisses, his stomach clenching.

“What?”

“Could you have least warmed up your hands before sticking them up my shirt?” Hosea complains, squirming to get away. Dutch chuckles, squeezing his arms tighter around the narrow waist.

“I’m warming them up now, aren’t I, Old Girl? Besides, it’s what you get for stealing my shirt.”

“You like me in your shirts.” Dutch buries cold nose in the back of Hosea’s neck.

“Well, yeah. They hang off you and it’s cute.”

“And here I was thinking it was because you are a possessive bastard.” Hosea teases, turning his head back to look at Dutch, a sly smile pulling at his lips.

“You think you’re funny?” Dutch snarls playfully, sitting up to kneel over the man.

“Not at all, Big Cat” Hosea’s eyes almost glow as he stares up at Dutch. He’s lead on his back, shirt collar open wide enough to show his shoulder, he’s smiling when he lifts his hands to cup Dutch’s face, thumbs stroking over his cheeks as he pulls him down into a kiss. Dutch goes Willingly, lowering himself down in to his elbows. The kiss stays light and slow, neither are looking for more at this moment, both are too tired and just want to find comfort in the other.

When they part, it’s with another peck and smiles. Dutch rolls onto his back one arm around the man as Hosea rests his head on his chest.

* * *

“Mr Matthews, Mr Van Der Linde! Get up!”

He doesn’t know when they fell asleep or for how long but when Dutch opens his eyes wearily, Hosea is still asleep against his chest and it’s bright outside. He looks up, squinting against the light to see Mrs Grimshaw in the doorway, holding… _It can’t be._ Dutch looks over to the chest he had put Arthur in the night before only to see the boy missing.

“Arthur?” He asks in confusion when he looks back up at Susan.

“Dutch, would you care to explain why there was a baby crawling around the house this morning?”

“Uh, well, uh”

“What’s going on?” Hosea groggily asks, lifting himself up from Dutch to look at who’s in the doorway.

“Susan?”

“Mr Matthews, nice of you to join us. Your new little one was out and about.” She huffs, giving Arthur over to Dutch, who places him to sit on his chest. “Mr Smith found him reaching up to get through the front door. If it wasn’t for him, he would have been on his way out into the great outdoors.”

Hosea frowns, “Thank you for bringing him back, Mrs Grimshaw”

“It was no problem, Mr Matthews, keep a better eye on him next time?” And with that, she walks out of their room.

Both men let out surprised laughs when they’re alone, staring at Arthur who’s begun trying to undo the buttons on Dutch’s union suit.

“How in god’s name did you get out there, Little Prince?” Hosea asks, lifting a hand to stroke back Arthur’s hair.

“I’m telling you Hosea! He’s got skills, he’s going to be something great.” Dutch chuckles.

“He’s going to be a handful.” Hosea deadpans.

“Yeah, well, the best of us are.”

Hosea smiles, “Do you include yourself there, dearest?”

“I’m not a handful.”

“I’ll leave you to believe that, Big Cat.”

Arthur obviously has gotten bored as he slides off of Dutch’s chest and moves to slide off the bed. Dutch grabbing him before he topples off head first.

“Hold on there, Little Prince. You’ll hurt yourself.” Arthur lets out a frustrated noise when he gets interjected.

“Y’know what, Dutch?”

“Hmm?”

“He could well possibly be your son, he’s just as stubborn and pig-headed.”

“Don’t be cute, Old Girl.” Dutch playfully glares when he stands from the bed, leaving Arthur on the mattress in front of Hosea. The man pulls Arthur to his chest, causing the boy to squeal and giggle.

Dutch smiles and begins changing out of his clothes. He turns around, shirt still partly unbuttoned and catches Hosea’s soft gaze over Arthur’s back. He returns the smile and bends down to pick up Arthur, placing a kiss on Hosea’s lips when he straightens back up.

“I’m going to get some food for us. Meet us outside when you’re dressed and we can talk about packing to leave.”

“Alright, Dutch.”

Dutch looks down at Arthur sat against his hip, “C’mon then Little Prince, let’s go make some introductions. Say bye” Dutch raises Arthur’s hand to wave at Hosea and the man waves back, causing him to giggle. Dutch smiles, puts on his coat and turns to leave the cabin.

As soon as they step out the door and are hit with the light flutter of snow, Arthur squeals.

“You like the snow, Arthur?” Dutch grins, watching the boy wave his arms about excitedly.

He continues his way over to their temporary cook station, calling for Pearson.

“Mr Pearson! Do we happen to have any beans?”

“Excuse me?” Pearson asks in confusion, turning around.

“Beans, man. Do we have any?” Dutch repeats, ignoring the look of surprise on the man’s face.

“Uh, right”

Dutch leans against the wall as he waits for Pearson to rummage through the small supplies they have. He jumps at the sudden voice behind him.

“Well, ain’t he just a little fellah.” Dutch whips around to face Uncle.

“Uncle.” Dutch greet before directing the next sentence at the boy.

“Arthur, this is the family Parasite.”

“well that ain’t nice.”

Arthur gurgles a series of sounds, feet kicking about as he stares at the other man.

“Would you look at that, he likes me.”

“That would be the first,” Hosea laughs, as he joins them.

“Hello Dutch.”

“Hosea.” Dutch nods.

Hosea looks down when he feels a hand tug at his coat.

“Hello again to you too, Little Prince”

“Mr Van Der Linde.”

Dutch turns around to see Pearson holding out a tin of beans.

“That’s a good man. C’mon, Arthur, let’s go have some breakfast.” Dutch walks off to sit around the small campfire, leaving Hosea with Uncle.

* * *

Hosea watches as Dutch leaves with Arthur. He doesn’t regret letting Dutch keep the boy in the slightest. _Despite how much trouble he is, no doubt, going to get in to._

He doesn’t really want to get up. The bed’s warm and he knows as soon as he moves out from under the blanket the air will nip almost painfully at his skin. He just wants to stay here, surrounded by Dutch’s scent and hidden out of sight from everyone else. But he can’t, if for nothing else, he has to help Dutch with Arthur.

Hosea sighs, lifting himself off the bed to get changed for the day; he debates taking off Dutch’s shirt but decides to just leave it on.

Hosea pulls his boots on and grabs a couple of tinned goods to take to Pearson, leaving the cabin and stepping into the cold.

He walks across to the biggest cabin where the girls, John and Strauss have been holed up. The cabin is empty aside from where John is led on the bed and Sadie is reading in the corner.

He pulls up a chair beside the bed.

“Hiya, John. How you holding up?”

“As good as I can be, I guess. I ain’t dead, so that’s something.”

“That it is, son” Hosea laughs, patting John’s arm.

“Hey Hosea, what’s the talk about there being another kid in camp?”

“Dutch bought him home yesterday. His name’s Arthur. Rambunctious boy, that one.” John could tell by the way Hosea said it with a smile that he obviously already deeply cared for the boy.

“It would be good for Jack to have someone his own age, I guess.”

Hosea laughs again, “It’ll be a while before that happens yet”

“What, Dutch bring home a baby or something?” John jokes but then he sees Hosea’s face.

“Dutch brought home a baby?!” John asks surprised. “The Dutch Van Der Linde brought home another baby after he complained about Jack always keeping him up?”

“You know how Dutch is, unpredictable to a fault.” Hosea laughs again and John joins in. When it dies down, Hosea sighs, standing up.

“Right, it was nice talking to you John, but I have to go find Dutch and save poor Arthur from whatever that man’s putting him through.”

“Sure” With a pat to John’s arm, Hosea leaves in search for his lover and his, well, his son.

He soon sees Dutch talking to Uncle near Pearson’s hut, Arthur sat on his arm, back against his chest. He quickly walks over.

“That would be a first. Hello Dutch.”

* * *

The small campfire is empty, everyone either huddled up out of the cold or hunting, and Dutch sits himself and Arthur down on a goat skin rug. He makes quick work of heating up the beans before turning back to Arthur and smiling.

“C’mon then, Little Prince, finally we can eat.” He collects some a small amount of food on a spoon before presenting it to the boy. Arthur takes it seemingly without issue and Dutch’s smile broadens, glad the boy wasn’t being difficult. Until Arthur starts making faces.

“Uh, Arthur, what are those faces for?” He coos, softly smiling still. However, that smile completely drops when Arthur spits out his mouthful with a cry. Dutch sits back in shock, confused to what has just happened.

“What’s wrong? I’m trying to feed you here?!” Dutch asks, feeling suddenly stressed. _He was never the one in charge of feeding Jack, he doesn’t know what he’s doing here._

He attempts to give him another mouthful but Arthur gives a scream. He throws his arms about, knocking the spoon out of Dutch’s hand, beans spilling out of the tin as Dutch jerks to grab the falling utensil, covering the both of them in the food.

“What happened here?” A voice asks behind them. _Hosea, thank god._

Hosea looks down at the mess before him, both of his boys covered in food. Arthur whimpers and hold his hands out to him. Hosea coos, bending down to pick the boy up and out of the mess.

“What’s happened Little Prince? Beans not to your liking?” He sits on the log behind Dutch. He p Arthur on his knee and pulls out his neckerchief, using it to dab away the much covering the boy’s hands and face.

“It’s okay, Arthur. I don’t much like the beans either.” He leans in as if to whisper “But don’t tell dear Dutch.” He laughs when Arthur crooks his neck to avoid the cold brush of Hosea’s nose against his neck.

“How about we try something different, yeah?” He pulls a can out his pocket.

“Peas? Really Hosea? Which baby have you met that’s ever liked peas?” Dutch scoffs.

Hosea ignores him and dips his spoon into the can. When he raises it to Arthur, the boy hesitates before taking it into his mouth. Both men sit in trepidation, waiting for the boy to spit it out again, but he doesn’t. Instead, he makes an excited noise and kicks his feet, reaching out a hand for the spoon again.

“Huh, would you look at that?” Dutch says, shocked.

“Well, it seems there’s a first for everything.” Hosea laughs, giving the boy another spoonful.

“I’m going to go change and grab Arthur a new shirt to wear. Once everyone is around camp, we’ll go about telling everyone the plans of moving.”

“Alright Dutch.”

He walks past Hosea, kissing the man on the head and stroking Arthur’s hair before he heads back to the cabin.

* * *

Dutch walks into their room to the bed being made and the clothes they wore the night before folded at the foot of their bed. Hosea refuses to leave any room a mess, his cleaning spree knows no bounds. On the bed is also diaper inserts and the fabric cover for Arthur.

_At least I don’t have to sacrifice anymore shirts now._ Dutch thinks with a smile, placing them inside a satchel to take to Hosea. He moves on to change from his bean sodden shirt, leaving it on the floor.

“Dutch!” He jumps and turns around, clean shirt hanging loosely in his hand.

“Molly! Would it kill you to knock!”

“I don’t see why I would need to Dutch.”

“Oh, I don’t know, privacy maybe?” Dutch sighs, turning back around to finish changing. Now decent, he turns back to the woman who has yet to leave.

“Now, Miss O’shea, can we make this quick? I need to get back to Arthur and speak to the gang.” Dutch asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Jesus Dutch, would it kill you to take a second and listen?”

“Yes.” Dutch answers simply.

“God! You are insufferable!” She shouts before storming out of the room, leaving the door to slam against the wall.

“Well-” He stands there in confusion for a second, wandering what the hell just happened. He shakes his head, grabs one of Hosea’s sweaters and jogging back out to his boys.

Hosea is still sat at the campfire, Arthur tucked into his coat, but now the majority of their gang is sat around them talking quietly as not to disturb the boy drifting in and out of sleep.

“Hey boss.” Dutch barely keeps the annoyed groan to himself, but doesn’t have such luck with refraining from rolling his eyes. _Why does everyone want to talk to me today?!_

“Yes, Micah?” He grits out.

“Woah, easy there, boss. I just want to talk.” Micah holds up his hands in mock surrender.

“So, speak. I have things I need to address with the rest of the gang”

“Alright then. Do you really think it wise idea to keep a child? It costs us more supplies and It’ll only get in the way when we go back to Blackwater.”

“We’re not going back to Blackwater.” Dutch replies simply.

“Dutch, that’s a lot of money we’re just leaving!?”

“We’re not going back Mr Bell, and you’d do well and drop this discussion.”

“Yes boss…” Micah grumbles, following behind as Dutch walks to the group gathered around the campfire, that urchin of a child sat in the old fella’s arms. If you were to ask Micah, he would have gotten rid of Hosea a long time ago, the old fool had too many opinions, but apparently old Dutch has some sort of an attachment to him.

He moves to lean up against the small shed’s wall, watching in distain as Dutch bends down to greet the man and the liability of an infant.

“Hello again, Arthur. Did we enjoy our breakfast this time?” Dutch asks, smiling when the boy laughs and flails. He straightens up again, Hosea soon joining his side.

Dutch clears his throat, clapping his gloved hands together.

“Hello! Everybody, I need you to listen up!” Dutch announces, addressing the camp; when it seems that he has near everyone’s attention he continues.

“As the storm has cleared up, I reckon it is time for us to move on out of here.”

“For the time being, we will be moving west into New Hanover, more specifically The Heartlands. Just North is a small livestock town called Valentine; shouldn’t be too hard to lay low if we kept to ourselves and don’t stir up no dust, stick to smaller jobs.” Hosea carries on, giving Dutch a pointed look in which the man raises his hands in a mock surrender, a smile pulling at his lips.

“When we set up camp down that way, Charles, Javier and Lenny can work at getting Sean back, Trelawny has sent word of him being held up by a group of head skinners. Hosea will work on getting those bonds sold and then we’ll be on our way again, further east with any luck.” Dutch claps his hands together again and the gang are distracted when the young child in Hosea’s arms tries to copy, letting a joyous squeal loose as he does so.

“Of course! How could I forget?! Friends this is Arthur! He will be staying with us now,” Dutch turns to look at the boy, “Say hello, Little Prince.”

He laughs when Arthur excitedly kicks his feet and throws his arms about in response to his name, earning the boy all sorts of reactions from the gang members.

“Get packing people. Get poor John and the young man we have tied up loaded into the back of a wagon and we shall be on our way.” Hosea tells everyone before walking away, back to their cabin to change Arthur out of his makeshift diaper and into the jumper Dutch gave him.

* * *

Hosea was sat up front of the wagon with Dutch, Arthur asleep in his lap.

“Hosea?”

“Yes, Dear?” He replies softly, gazing up at him.

“We did good with this, yeah. Us, the gang, Arthur?”

“Yeah Dutch, we did good.” Hosea confirms, taking Dutch’s hand and running his thumb over the back. “…We did good.”

  
  



End file.
